Comments on: chocolate yogurt snack cakes

By: Simona

Simona — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:00:46 +0000

Hello Deb! I’ve been looking around your beautiful blog for a while now and I finally got the occasion to try these… They are absolutely perfect!! Everyone loved them at home and I can assure you they disappeared in a couple of hours…
Thanks for this one and congratulations for your blog, it inspires me every time!

By: Julia

Julia — Wed, 11 May 2011 15:35:33 +0000

yay! I just made these and they’re REALLY tasty (although the ones I made in my silicone cupcake pan taste a little plastic-y…time for some investigation). PERFECT for a third trimester pick-me-up (and it looks like one of your other preggo commenters wanted to put berries in hers, too…i think i’ll make them again with sour cherries). I live in France and can’t find baking soda/powder; they come pre-mixed in little pink packets called “chemical leavening” (11 g of powder per packet), and I just threw one of those in and the recipe turned out fine. And: about the speedos. Once my husband didn’t have one, so the pool here LOANED him one…how a loaner speedo is more hygienic than one’s own board shorts is beyond me. LOVE your posts talking about how you wish you were in Paris because I am in France wishing I could eat at the New York restaurants you blog about… greener grass.

By: Adrienne

Adrienne — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 07:06:06 +0000

These were delicious and light. Baked these two days ago, and substituted the almond extract for peppermint and everyone loved it. They do become moist after a day in the container.

By: Linzi

Linzi — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 22:03:33 +0000

Lisa – thanks so much for the post. That was exactly how I felt about these “snack cakes”, it felt more like a mix between bread and cake. I guess I expected a springier product, but when it turned out drier and firmer I thought perhaps I had overcooked it. I will try again with maybe a scant bit more yogurt. I also tried Deb’s Swiss Buttercream and it just didnt work for me. I love buttercream, but I couldnt get the texture right on this one – and it was just too buttery (yes, I guess there is such a thing!)

By: Lisa

Lisa — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 07:25:59 +0000

Linzi, I can’t speak for Deb, but my experience with this recipe (per my comment right above yours) yielded a product that was somewhere between “bread” and “cake.” It was firmer and drier than I expected, but in a good way. I also found that the flavor, texture, and moisture were better developed after the bread rested in a sealed ziploc bag overnight; it never became springy, like a cake, but it went from “firm” to “tender,” if that makes sense.

I baked mine in a loaf pan instead of Deb’s adorable mini-springforms (wish I had that pan!), and needed to bake it for over an hour. If you were using a cupcake pan, they probably needed the extra bake time you gave them.

It sounds like you did everything very well; could it be that you expected more of a “cake”-like result than what you got? (That was my initial experience.) It may also just be a matter of taste; you may have done it perfectly, but it may just not be your thing. :) I had that experience with Deb’s beautiful Swiss buttercream recipe – followed exactly, got the results, but found out that I just don’t like Swiss buttercream. (That blueberry boy bait, on the other hand… drool!)

By: Linzi

Linzi — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 07:14:12 +0000

This was my third recipe from Smitten Kitchen. So far everything I have made (the olive oil cake and the blueberry boy bait) have turned out wonderful with rave reviews. I tried this tonight, following the recipe exactly. I cooked for 20 minutes and checked with a toothpick. They were not at all cooked. So I left them in for 25 minutes, let them cool and removed from cupcake tin. When we tried them, I thought that they were too dry. I am a newbie at baking, so any advice would be most welcome. I am wondering if they were too dry because they were overcooked? Should I have taken them out earlier? Or should I have taken the cupcakes out of the tin while they were still warm so that they wouldnt continue to cook? Also, my batter was quite sticky and difficult to dole out evenly into the tins. I love the idea of the recipe, and if anyone has any advice, I will try again.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 04:26:52 +0000

Made this today, but had to sub sour cream for the yogurt, and baked it in a loaf pan. Delicious! Reminds me much more of a “bread” than a “cake,” in a good way. Thanks for sharing, Deb!

By: deb

deb — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 01:25:15 +0000

It's a mini-springform pan.

By: Anna

Anna — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 20:38:35 +0000

Hello! I just found your site and have been addicted – running through years of recipes in 2 days!

One quick question – where did you get your mold in this recipe? Is that the bouchon mold from Williams-Sonoma? I’ve been looking for one for ages! (Also live in NYC)

By: Taymour

Taymour — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 12:58:10 +0000

I’m a big fan of yours (and David’s). I tried this with 85% cocoa chocolate and in a 9×5 loaf tin. The batter didn’t really look very much like the batter in your picture. Perhaps because of the chocolate? I was worried it might seize up and split because it became very stiff very quickly. I stirred very little as directed but DID use a electric hand blender to blend the flour and yogurt mixture (very briefly though). It took about 1 hr 15 minutes in my always slow oven but came out quite dry and dense, though it looked like it had risen nicely. Ok but not the light moist cake I was hoping for. It could be down to the chocolate, over-blending, the tin, the local flour… Hmmm…